Search Results for: business

The office furniture price on the page has always been an opening bid

The office furniture price on the page has always been an opening bid

by • Comment, Workplace design

The published prices of office furniture are there to start a conversation, they don't mean anythingAsk anyone who has worked in office furniture what the list price is for and they will pause before answering, because the honest answer is embarrassing. The list price is the number the trade agrees not to charge. It exists so there is something to discount from. The mechanism is simple. A manufacturer publishes a recommended price. A dealer buys at a trade price a long way below it. The dealer then sells to the end customer at whatever point between the two the conversation lands. Where it lands depends on the customer: how large they are, how many desks they sound as though they might need one day, whether they have a competing quote in their hand, whether they mention a framework, and, more than anything, whether they know the game is on. The buyer who asks for a discount gets one. The buyer who does not ask pays the number on the page. (more…)

Europe’s large firms want better offices, but are less keen on paying extra for them

Europe’s large firms want better offices, but are less keen on paying extra for them

by • News, Property, Workplace design

Nearly two-thirds of large European office occupiers expect to relocate some of their operations over the next three years, as organisations seek better quality workplaces while becoming increasingly reluctant to pay a premium for them. According to CBRE’s 2026 European Office Occupier Sentiment Survey, 65 percent of respondents are planning relocations. Nine in ten say they would reject offices that do not provide the amenities they require, yet the proportion willing to pay extra for those amenities has fallen from 54 percent last year to 48 percent. (more…)

The first issue of Sustainability Works is available for you now

The first issue of Sustainability Works is available for you now

by • Environment, News, Premium Content, Sustainability Works, Workplace design

The first issue of Sustainability Works, the new publication dedicated to sustainable design for the built environment, has been launched by the team behind Works magazine in partnership with the Sustainable Design Collective (SDC). Edited by Joanna Knight, Sustainability Works has been created to inform, challenge and inspire the workplace and design community at a time when sustainability is moving beyond individual products and initiatives to reshape the way buildings and interiors are designed, specified, delivered and managed. (more…)

Hybrid working and the hidden cost of being “always on” at work

Hybrid working and the hidden cost of being “always on” at work

by • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Hybrid working has delivered welcome flexibility, but it has also changed our relationship with work. The traditional boundary created by leaving the office at the end of the day is often less defined when work is accessible from our kitchen table, spare room or mobile phone. Yet this challenge is not limited to those working remotely. Even employees who spend most of their time in the office now carry work with them through smartphones and constant digital connectivity. (more…)

What people from successful workplace events think it takes to launch something new

What people from successful workplace events think it takes to launch something new

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

The challenge for workplace events isn’t just about the numbers involved. It's about engaging the audience by having something to sayHerb Kim has been running the Thinking Digital conference at the Glasshouse in Gateshead since 2008. Ask Terry McStea, who knows about most events in the North East, which ones are genuinely unmissable and Thinking Digital is one of the two he immediately names. “If for whatever reason Thinking Digital was cancelled, it would leave a huge hole.” But ask Kim about year one and his account is rather different. “The first year was probably on the knife edge between disaster and success,” he chuckles. “Year one… it was badly undersold.” His account of what the first year of their event was really aiming for gave episode two of Work in Motion its title. “Even if your event is free and you have catering and you have, I don’t know, some big name coming, they’ll often still struggle to not even get the place full, but to get the place not embarrassingly empty.” (more…)

The Workspace Design Show London to emphasise the design of human-centered workplaces

The Workspace Design Show London to emphasise the design of human-centered workplaces

by • Company news, Facilities management, Workplace design

The Workspace Design Show returns to the Business Design Centre, London on 24–25 February 2027, unveiling its new theme: “The Human Experience of Work”The Workspace Design Show returns to the Business Design Centre, London on 24–25 February 2027, unveiling its new theme: “The Human Experience of Work”, a direction placing wellbeing, inclusion, sensory comfort, belonging, neurodiversity and emotional experience at the centre of workplace design. As organisations continue to rethink what makes people want to come together in person, the 2027 edition will explore how workplaces can move beyond functionality to become environments that genuinely support people. Spaces designed around human connection, comfort, mood, acoustics, hospitality, inclusivity and how work environments make us feel. (more…)

Why the organisations seeing real returns from agentic AI are empowering employees, not cutting jobs

Why the organisations seeing real returns from agentic AI are empowering employees, not cutting jobs

by • AI, Comment

The launch of the UK Government’s AI Skills Compact reflects an important shift in how policymakers and businesses are thinking about artificial intelligence. Rather than viewing AI simply as a route to greater efficiency or reduced headcount, leaders are starting to recognise that long-term competitiveness will depend just as much on equipping people with the skills to work alongside AI as investing in the technology itself. (more…)

Is resilience a personality trait or a flaw in workplace design?

Is resilience a personality trait or a flaw in workplace design?

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Resilience is often ascribed to the individual, but are there other ways we could look at the issue, asks Carl LyonsResilience must be one of the most misunderstood issues affecting businesses right now. It’s used whenever people are struggling, and almost always aimed at the individual – be tougher, manage your stress, build a bit more grit. During countless conversations with leaders and teams over the last few years it has been seen that those words do real damage to people who are trying hard to do their best. When tiredness is no longer fixed by a weekend, when feedback lands as a threat, and when change is met with a sigh, it gets recorded under ‘poor personal resilience’, effectively telling people the problem is with them. I don’t think it is. I think we’re looking in the wrong place. (more…)

Productivity gains from workplace AI mean little if they erase professional judgment

Productivity gains from workplace AI mean little if they erase professional judgment

by • AI, Architecture, Comment, Workplace design

Speed can become a dangerous proxy for the value of workplace AI when leaders stop asking what happened to the judgment behind the work.The strongest case for workplace AI rarely begins with a dramatic breakthrough. It begins with ordinary time savings: a report drafted faster, a plan assembled in minutes or a first pass produced without the usual blank-page delay. Those gains matter. Yet speed can become a dangerous proxy for value when leaders stop asking what happened to the judgment behind the work. (more…)

Work Beyond Walls is an event that promises to shift the way we talk about offices

Work Beyond Walls is an event that promises to shift the way we talk about offices

by • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

A new event in the North East of England promises to explore offices and the way we talk about them in a new wayOur sector produces an enormous amount of content about change, and almost all of it is published after the outcome is known. Case studies of offices appear once the move-in has gone well. Award entries are written once the risks have been mitigated. What gets shared among us is, overwhelmingly, a library of polished endings. Work in Motion is an attempt at the complete opposite. It’s a six-part documentary podcast series following the inside story of Work Beyond Walls – a brand new event at the Boiler Shop in Newcastle on 9 and 10 September – written and presented by me, Ian Ellison, as plans unfold, rather than once the event has happened. (more…)

Hubflow acquires 37 Lombard Street as it expands London office portfolio

Hubflow acquires 37 Lombard Street as it expands London office portfolio

by • Company news, Flexible working, Property

Flexible workspace provider Hubflow has acquired the freehold of its 37 Lombard Street site in the City of London as part of a strategy to combine workspace operations with ownership of the properties it occupies. The company has also confirmed plans to open more than 25,000 sq ft of additional flexible workspace across two central London locations, at 60 New Broad Street and 71 Queen Victoria Street, next month. Hubflow said the acquisition of 37 Lombard Street represents the next stage of its London office expansion strategy and a move towards an owner-operator model that differs from the lease-based approach adopted by many flexible workspace providers. (more…)

AI firms and flexible office operators drive global demand for prime office space

AI firms and flexible office operators drive global demand for prime office space

by • News, Property

Global demand for prime office space is showing further signs of growth, with almost six in ten of the largest leasing deals in the first half of 2026 involving organisations expanding their footprintsGlobal demand for prime office space is showing further signs of growth, with almost six in ten of the largest leasing deals in the first half of 2026 involving organisations expanding their footprints, according to new research from Savills. The property consultancy says expansionary deals accounted for 58 percent of activity among the largest prime office transactions it analysed. Just 5 percent involved organisations reducing their space, while the proportion of occupiers relocating or renewing with broadly the same footprint fell from 44 percent in the second half of 2025 to 37 percent in the first six months of this year. (more…)

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